pon too openly in
their wary duel. If he ever betrayed his dislike Karen must see that it
was Tante who wouldn't allow him to conceal it, who, sorrowfully and
gently, turned herself about in the light she elicited and displayed
herself to Karen as rejected and uncomplaining. He hoped that Karen saw
it. But he could be sure of nothing that Karen saw. The flawless loyalty
of her outward bearing might be but the shield for a deepening hurt. All
that he could do was what, in former days and in different conditions,
Mrs. Talcott had advised him to do; "hang on," and parry Madame von
Marwitz's thrusts. She had come, he more and more felt sure of it, urged
by her itching jealousy, for the purpose of making mischief; and if it
was not a motive of which she was conscious, that made her but the more
dangerous with her deep, instinctive craft.

Meanwhile if there were fundamental anxieties to fret one's heart, there
were superficial irritations that abraded one's nerves.

Karen was accustomed to the turmoil that surrounded the guarded shrine
where genius slept or worked, too much accustomed, without doubt, to
realise its effect upon her husband.

The electric bells were never silent. Seated figures, bearing band-boxes
or rolls of music, filled the hall at all hours of the day and night.
Alert interviewers button-holed him on his way in and out and asked for
a few details about Mrs. Jardine's youth, and her relationship to Madame
Okraska.

Madame von Marwitz rose capriciously and ate capriciously; trays with
strange meals upon them were carried at strange hours to her rooms, and
Barker, Mrs. Barker and Rose all quarrelled with Louise.

Madame von Marwitz also showed oddities of temper which, with all her
determination to appear at her best, it did not occur to her to control,
oddities that met, from Karen, with a fond tolerance.

It startled Gregory when they saw Madame von Marwitz, emerging from her
room, administer two smart boxes upon Louise's ears, remarking as she
did so, with gravity rather than anger: "_Voila pour toi, ma fille._"

"Is Madame von Marwitz in the habit of slapping her servants?" he asked
Karen in their room, aware that his frigid mien required justification.

She looked at him through the veil of ice. "Tante's servants adore her."

"Well, it seems a pity to take such an advantage of their adoration."

"Louise is sometimes very clumsy and impertinent."

"I can't help thinking that that sort of treatm